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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 11:48:23 GMT
Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2009 11:48:23 GMT
Do you like them? How do you use them? I have olive phases, and then I can forget about them for months. I usually just eat them from a jar or a can, or sometimes I'll buy a container of speciality olives like in the photo -- not the same size container, however. I never use olives when cooking, although I know that numerous recipes call for them. I don't mind finding them in various cooked dishes, but I have never felt that they really add anything interesting to the dish. I have nothing against olives on a pizza, though. I like olives in certain salads. I even bring back those little cans of sliced olives from the U.S. because they don't sell them here, and those tiny cans are the perfect size for such uses.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 12:11:55 GMT
Post by lagatta on Nov 28, 2009 12:11:55 GMT
I rarely like eating them much à l'apéro per se; a close friend of mine loves them and always has a bowl of them. Find them a bit too salty and bitter. On the contrary, I do like them in cooked dishes - the famous Moroccan tagine with olives and PRESERVED LEMONS (this for casimira), olives in some pasta sauces, and of course in fougasse.
I can't help casimira out with her preserved lemon recipe because I can buy a jar of them cheaper than fresh lemons...
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 12:46:13 GMT
Post by bazfaz on Nov 28, 2009 12:46:13 GMT
I love olives in salads: the Greek horiatiki, Morrocan orange, onion and olive, French nicoise. There is a lovely daube where the lamb is marinated in red wine then cooked with its marinade and black olives. Then there's tapenade. If you want an unusual stuffing for chicken: breadcrumbs, chopped salami, chopped black olives, parsley, garlic. There's a good pasta sauce with tomatoes, anchovies and black olives. I once made a dessert out of green olives. Only one dinner guest was brave enough to try it. I think the other guests were wise to have the chocolate mousse instead. I'm a better cook now so I would like to try that recipe again (except I have lost it).
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 13:21:23 GMT
Post by lagatta on Nov 28, 2009 13:21:23 GMT
Your pasta sauce is la puttanesca - delicious!
I've made tapenade too - absolutely calls for capers as well, usually anchovies. Guests hoover it up.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 15:00:24 GMT
Post by imec on Nov 28, 2009 15:00:24 GMT
Have yet to meet an olive i didn't like - I eat them with drinks or as an accompaniment to charcuterie. I use them in Greek salads and in a shrimp salad I sometimes make. Oh, and oil cured black ones sauteed with garlic and tomatoes as an appetizer with grilled Italian bread - yum!
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 15:32:36 GMT
Post by bazfaz on Nov 28, 2009 15:32:36 GMT
Tapenade certainly needs anchovies and capers as well as black olives. Elizabeth David says that tapenade derives from the provencale word tapeno which means caper.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 16:28:50 GMT
Post by happytraveller on Nov 28, 2009 16:28:50 GMT
I have only recently "learned" to like olives. I now love them very much ! In any variety. Olive oil I could drink...
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 16:44:50 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Nov 28, 2009 16:44:50 GMT
I second Imec ~~ love all olives, although my preference is for the intensely flavored ones. Baz, that tapenade-in-dressing idea is outstanding. I'd never have thought of that, but will absolutely use it the very next time I roast chicken. I'm thinking it could be adapted for chicken pieces, too -- using any broiled chicken technique, then carefully piling the dressing onto the hollow side of the chicken/thigh portion towards the end of cooking time, for instance. Olives instead of pickles can be wonderful in salads such as tuna, egg, etc. And of course, one of the most ambrosial foods in the world, caponata, must have olives in it. Muffalettas, with their essential olive salad, were mentioned in another thread. I know for a fact that someone here has her mother-in-law's superior recipe for that divine foodstuff. Perhaps she'll share? In the meantime, check out this version. Drat! Now I am thinking about olives, and I can't get the kind I really prefer around here. I'm also getting an inspiration about how nice a room-temperature dish of chickpeas, stewed celery, finely chopped onions, and coarsely cut, really good olives would be.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 16:51:23 GMT
Post by auntieannie on Nov 28, 2009 16:51:23 GMT
ooooh, olives... food of the gods!
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 17:14:26 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Nov 28, 2009 17:14:26 GMT
I saw the thread in The Galley asking for an authentic preserved lemon recipe and looked in my Morrocan cookbook for one. There wasn't one there, but there was this veal dish that is heavy on the olives:
Tajin of Veal with Olives
1.5 kg of veal shank, cut in pieces 500 g of seedless olives 2 medium onions, diced 1 large tomato, grated 8 cloves of garlic, minced 1 vasito of oil (book is from Morocco, but in Spanish -- how much is a "little glassful"?) 1/2 vasito of olive oil 1 teaspoon of ginger a pinch of saffron 1 teaspoon of salt 1 beef bouillon cube 2 soup spoons of minced parsley 2 soup spoons of minced cilantro
Brown the meat in the oil with the saffron, salt, ginger, onions, garlic and bouillon cube. Cover with water & cook on low heat until it's half done. Boil a liter of water with one quarter of a lemon. Submerge the olives for 10 minutes to rid them of salt, then add them to the cooking pot along with the tomato, parsley, & cilantro. Allow it to finish cooking, constantly checking to make sure there is enough water, adding as needed. Add the olive oil at the end. Serve hot.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 17:21:10 GMT
Post by bazfaz on Nov 28, 2009 17:21:10 GMT
When I lived in the Herault I knew every productive tree (cherry, peach, walnut, olive) that was not harvested. This was usually because the grown-up children had gone to work in a city and then the parents died. So I always walked with a plastic bag in my pocket for gathering produce. There were two olive trees I knew that I used to get ripe black olives from and then cure myself. This was easy. I made a slit in each olive, put them in a bowl, covered them with salt water and left them. Once a week I changed the salt water. After a month the bitterness had been drawn out. I put the olives in jars with more salt water and an addition of vinegar. They kept well and were delicious.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 19:14:24 GMT
Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2009 19:14:24 GMT
I had no olives on hand so I bought a jar of 'Greek' olives today -- those are the shriveled black ones.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 20:19:52 GMT
Post by lagatta on Nov 28, 2009 20:19:52 GMT
Hmm, I'd say a vasito is the smallest tumblers (like the Duralex or Arcoroc tumblers mentioned before). Perhaps about 4 ounces, in that kind of measurements? www.le-tom.com/duralex-provence The "small glass" on this one is 4.5 ounces, 13cl. bixa, I had a Moroccan friend in Paris who made that tagine as well as the chicken, olive and preserved lemon one. He bought the lemons already preserved too. It is easy to do (in salt) but I don't have any advice about the best recipe or procedure. Yes, bazfaz, tapenade is named for the capers - they are a must. A friend from Nîmes said my tapenade was excellent. I love reading Elizabeth David, though evidently she was not an easy person to get on with...
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 21:12:22 GMT
Post by bazfaz on Nov 28, 2009 21:12:22 GMT
Laggatta, a friend of a friend invited Elizabeth David for lunch. She was trembling with nerves. ED arrived drunk out of her skull.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 21:41:44 GMT
Post by fumobici on Nov 28, 2009 21:41:44 GMT
I have a thing for Nicoise olives spiced with cumin. The store here that sold them stopped carrying them though.
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 22:23:58 GMT
Post by lagatta on Nov 28, 2009 22:23:58 GMT
bazfaz, evidently she was quite known for that, and unfortunately, elle avait le vin triste, pas le vin gai. Sodden pain in the arse. But what a writer!
Mmm cumin. Wonderful (though sometimes overused and misused). I prefer to buy it whole, not ground, and either bruise it in my mortar or grind it in my spice mill (just an electric coffee mill; one for coffee, one for spices, flaxseed etc).
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Olives
Nov 28, 2009 22:33:27 GMT
Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2009 22:33:27 GMT
I seem to recall that I had an olive photo at the Avignon covered market last summer. Let me see if I can find it.
Nope, too complicated tonight. Sorry.
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